Several trends in today's society have combined to produce a need for rapid and dependable delivery of parcels or packages (the terms being used interchangeably herein). These trends include the consolidation of parts warehouses for economic reasons, just-in-time manufacturing methods, consumer empowerment which includes internet shopping and the ever-growing need for rapid gratification. These trends have resulted in the establishment and growth of several business concerns whose service is parcel and package delivery by various means including air, rail, and ground, with promised transit times inversely related to fees.
Business and personal consumers have become dependent on these services, as exemplified by just-in-time manufacturing. Businesses can suffer serious disruption in the event of a lost or delayed shipment. Consumers become anxious or angry when shipments are lost or don't arrive when promised or expected. In order to resolve those concerns in an efficacious manner, shipping companies have come to provide tracking services. As practiced prior to this invention, each time a package is handled, a package tracking number or other identifying information (the “package identifier”) and the location, time, and date are recorded in a database, often after capture by means of a bar code scanner or other automated method. The term package identifier as used herein includes instances where such an identifier may, in fact, refer to more than one package. Some shipping systems allow more than one package to be shipped under a single tracking number, or identifier. In such instances, the packages would be bound for the same destination and would, therefore, travel together from source location to destination location. In this way, the single package identifier could be used to track the location of the multiple packages shipped together.
The sender or recipient of a package can utilize the identifier assigned to the package to query the delivery company's database via e-mail inquiry, web browser or other method to find out its current status and whereabouts. FIG. 1 shows a sample tracking report form according to such prior art systems for a package which has been delivered. If a package is not delivered when expected, the shipping company can use the information in the database to begin looking for it at the point where it was last scanned. Where multiple packages were shipped under a single identifier, the group of packages could be tracked in the same way using the identifier.
This method of package tracking has served customers well, but it suffers from certain limitations which can become problematic. When a package in transit is not handled frequently, e.g., if it is on a cross-country aircraft, truck or rail car, new information is not made available to the database or to the requesting user. Considering the delivery example shown in FIG. 1, if a user were to make an inquiry about the package during any or all of the days between its departure from San Francisco on June 11 and its arrival in Greensboro on June 16, he would see no updates. Any inquiry made during this relatively long period of time would show only the information shown in FIG. 2. As a result, a user might be tempted to conclude that the package had been lost, misplaced or delayed. This might result in unnecessary inquiries to the delivery company, customer complaints and dissatisfaction, etc., all of which are undesirable and can potentially cost the delivery company time and money.
Additional information regarding the location of the transporting vehicle such as a truck or rail car is often available to the shipper, but is not made available to the package sender or recipient. There are a number of means by which trucks are regularly tracked; in addition to driver check-in, trucks may be tracked electronically, using the OmniTRACS® or TrailerTRACS® satellite systems from Qualcomm Incorporated, for example. Rail cars are also electronically tracked. In addition, evolving Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology increasingly allows exact vehicle location information to be available at all times. Vehicle location information may be tracked and stored in a database or can be delivered in real time by the tracking mechanism.
What is needed is an efficient and reliable way of linking package and vehicle information, including real-time vehicle location information, in a way that is accessible to interested users.